Method and system for switched combined diversity with a modal antenna

1. An antenna system, comprising:

a plurality of antennas including at least one modal antenna comprising an antenna element positioned above a circuit board forming an antenna volume therebetween, a first parasitic element positioned outside said antenna volume and adjacent to the antenna element and being coupled to a first active tuning component, and a second parasitic element positioned within the antenna volume and coupled to a second active tuning component, said modal antenna being configured for band switching and beam steering using a single antenna element, wherein each of the at least one modal antenna is configured to have a plurality of modes associated therewith; and

a processor coupled to the plurality of antennas and configured to select one or more modes from the plurality of modes associated with each of the at least one modal antenna to have one or more selected modes associated with each of the at least one modal antenna, to combine modes to form one or more combinations of modes, wherein the modes in each of the one or more combinations are associated respectively with the plurality of antennas and comprise one of the one or more selected modes associated with each of the at least one modal antenna, and to select one of the one or more combinations that optimizes one or both of correlation and a quality metric for diversity.

2. The antenna system of claim 1 , wherein

each of the at least one modal antenna comprises a plurality of active elements coupled to a plurality of parasitic elements; and

the processor is configured to control the plurality of active elements to configure the plurality of parasitic elements to select the one or more modes from the plurality of modes associated with each of the at least one modal antenna.

3. The antenna system of claim 1 , wherein

the processor is further configured to store a correlation coefficient computed for each pair of modes for each of use conditions, wherein the modes in each pair comprise a mode associated with one antenna in the plurality of antennas and a mode associated with another antenna in the plurality of antenna;

based on information on the correlation coefficients, the processor is configured to select the one or more modes from the plurality of modes associated with each of the at least one modal antenna to meet predetermined correlation optimization criteria under the use condition during a time interval; and

the processor is further configured to turn on each of the one or more combinations sequentially, to perform a combining algorithm for each of the one or more combinations to compute the quality metric to select the one of the one or more combinations that optimizes one or both of the correlation and the quality metric for diversity.

4. The antenna system of claim 3 , wherein

the processor is further configured to store antenna efficiency; and

based on the information on the correlation coefficients, the processor is configured to select the one or more modes from the plurality of modes associated with each of the at least one modal antenna to meet predetermined correlation optimization criteria including efficiency considerations under the use condition during a time interval.

5. The antenna system of claim 3 , wherein

the correlation coefficient comprises an envelope correlation coefficient.

6. The antenna system of claim 3 , wherein

the combining algorithm comprises one of a minimum mean squared error (MMSE) combining technique, a maximum ratio combining (MRC) technique and an equal gain combining (EGC) technique.

7. The antenna system of claim 3 , wherein

the quality metric comprises one of signal to noise ratio (SNR), signal to interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR), receive signal strength indicator (RSSI), throughput and other channel quality indicators (CQI).

8. The antenna system of claim 1 , wherein

two or more of the plurality of antennas are configured for reception for receive diversity.

9. The antenna system of claim 1 , wherein

two or more of the plurality of antennas are configured for transmission for transmit diversity.

10. The antenna system of claim 9 , wherein

the processor is configured to receive feedback from a base station to optimize the correlation and the quality metric for a receive side of the base station.

11. A method of implementing diversity in an antenna system, comprising steps of:

providing a plurality of antennas including at least one modal antenna comprising an antenna element positioned above a circuit board forming an antenna volume therebetween, a first parasitic element positioned outside said antenna volume and adjacent to the antenna element and being coupled to a first active tuning component, and a second parasitic element positioned within the antenna volume and coupled to a second active tuning component, said modal antenna being configured for band switching and beam steering using a single antenna element, wherein each of the at least one modal antenna is configured to have a plurality of modes;

first selecting one or more modes from the plurality of modes associated with each of the at least one modal antenna to have one or more selected modes associated with each of the at least one modal antenna; and

combining modes to form one or more combinations of modes, wherein the modes in each of the one or more combinations are associated respectively with the plurality of antennas and comprise one of the one or more selected modes associated with each of the at least one modal antenna; and

second selecting one of the one or more combinations that optimizes one or both of correlation and a quality metric for diversity.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein

the first selecting comprises:

computing a correlation coefficient for each pair of modes for each of use conditions, wherein the modes in each pair comprise a mode associated with one antenna in the plurality of antennas and a mode associated with another antenna in the plurality of antenna;

storing the correlation coefficients in a processor; and

obtaining the one or more selected modes associated with each of the at least one modal antenna to meet predetermined correlation optimization criteria under the use condition during a time interval based on information on the correlation coefficients,

wherein

the combining comprises turning on each of the one or more combinations sequentially,

and wherein

the second selecting comprises performing a combining algorithm for each of the one or more combinations to compute the quality metric to select the one of the one or more combinations that optimizes one or both of the correlation and the quality metric for diversity.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein

the first selecting further comprises:

obtaining antenna efficiency;

storing the antenna efficiency in the processor; and

obtaining the one or more selected modes associated with each of the at least one modal antenna to meet predetermined correlation optimization criteria including efficiency considerations under the use condition during a time interval based on the information on the correlation coefficients.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein

the correlation coefficient comprises an envelope correlation coefficient.

15. The method of claim 12 , wherein

the combining algorithm comprises one of a minimum mean squared error (MMSE) combining technique, a maximum ratio combining (MRC) technique and an equal gain combining (EGC) technique.

16. The method of claim 12 , wherein

each of the at least one modal antenna comprises a plurality of active elements coupled to a plurality of parasitic elements; and

the turning on each of the one or more combinations sequentially comprises controlling the plurality of active elements to configure the plurality of parasitic elements in each of the at least one modal antenna.

17. The method of claim 11 , wherein

the quality metric comprises one of signal to noise ratio (SNR), signal to interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR), receive signal strength indicator (RSSI), throughput and other channel quality indicators (CQI).

18. The method of claim 11 , wherein

two or more of the plurality of antennas are configured for reception for receive diversity.

19. The method of claim 11 , wherein

two or more of the plurality of antennas are configured for transmission for transmit diversity.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein

the second selecting the one of the one or more combinations that optimizes the correlation and the quality metric comprises using feedback from a base station.

21. The method of claim 11 , further comprising steps of

observing power consumption; and

turning off one or more antennas and associated chains based on information on the power consumption for power conservation.

22. The method of claim 21 , wherein

the turning off one or more antennas comprises tuning off all the antennas except one of the at least one modal antenna for pattern and polarization diversity by switching the plurality of modes associated with the one of the at least one the modal antenna.

23. The method of claim 11 , further comprising steps of:

observing a usage pattern during a predetermined period; and

storing data of the usage pattern in a processor, wherein

the second selecting is performed based on the data of the usage pattern until the usage pattern changes by skipping the first selecting and the combining.